I find it depressing to look at the balances in my retirement savings plans, as I did the other day. For all the years of socking away money in my nest egg, there doesn't seem to be much to show for it.

But I'm in good company. The median balance in 401(k)s and IRAs for households approaching retirement is $120,000, according to an analysis by Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, of the Federal Reserve's recently released 2010 Survey of Consumer Finances. That's roughly the same amount as in 2007, and it would provide a mere $575 in monthly income, assuming a couple purchase a joint-and-survivor annuity.

Retirement savers probably won't have much to cheer about anytime soon, not with economic growth decelerating in the U.S. and Europe mired in a seemingly endless debt crisis. Little wonder boomers are realizing that they need to focus on practical ways to earn a paycheck well into the traditional retirement years. Even part-time earnings will allow them to postpone tapping savings and let the money compound longer.

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Still, I think the spending side of the retirement equation, a critical part of any savvy retirement plan, gets short shrift. With the day of retirement reckoning not all that far off, fiftysomethings need to realistically review their spending habits.

The financial reward of spending less is striking. Steven Sass, associate director at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, offers this example: Say you're 55 years old, and you plan on retiring in ten years. If you save an extra $1,000 a year, you'll have $10,000 plus investment earnings(in today's dollars). So, if your savings earned 4% above inflation -- you'd have about $12,500 (in today's dollars) at retirement. You could then withdraw about $500 a year in retirement, assuming you choose to spend 4% a year above inflation.

Here's the thing: The real return from this strategy comes from cutting spending to enable the extra savings. When you retire, you'll have actually improved your household finances by $1,500 a year: $1,000 in additional accumulated savings plus $500 in income. "As you approach retirement, and it's clearly too late to significantly add to your retirement savings by saving more, moving to a more sustainable standard of living has a much greater effect," says Sass. "The two effects of saving more and spending less could significantly improve your finances."

An emphasis on greater thrift doesn't have to mean living cheaply -- far from it. Instead, thrift or frugality should push us to match our money with our values. In History of the Thrift Movement in America, a 1920 book by Simon William Straus, Straus argues that thrift includes both saving and spending wisely.

"It is the thrift that recognizes the that finer things of life must be encouraged," he writes. "The skilled workman, the artist, the musician, the landscape gardener, the designer of beautiful furniture, the members of the professions -- all those, in fact, who, through the devotion of their abilities, contribute to the real betterment of mankind, must be given support through our judicious expenditures."

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Want More Money in Retirement? Spend Less